Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

It was a whirlwind weekend in the wide world of sports.

On Saturday night, I watched my pick to win the 2025 NCAA Men’s Division 1 national championship – Florida – rally in the second half and reach the title game by outlasting conference rival Auburn.

Then, I settled in to watch game number two of the national semifinals. As an ACC fan, I was rooting for Duke. They had a 14-point lead with a little over eight minutes remaining, but the Blue Devils collapsed down the stretch and lost by three.

On Sunday afternoon, Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals reached the pinnacle of his star-studded career in the National Hockey League when he scored career goal #895. In doing so, he surpassed Wayne Gretzky to become the league’s all-time goal scoring leader.

Ovechkin’s record-setting goal came in typical fashion, a blast in the second period from the left circle on a power play. The game (on the road at the New York Islanders) was halted about 20 minutes in order for this special moment in sports history to be fittingly recognized.

On Friday at home, Ovechkin tied Gretzky’s record with two goals, part of a 5-3 win over the the Chicago Blackhawks. To show his true nature as one of hockey’s all-time greats, Ovechkin could have possibly set the record in that game, but chose not to return to the ice late in the third period after Chicago had pulled their goalie. He didn’t want an “empty net” goal to define his special moment.

Ovechkin was only eight-years-old when Gretzky set the NHL’s goals scored record of 802 on March 23, 1994. He retired five years later with 894 career goals. Many said that Gretzky’s record would not be broken, but along came Ovechkin, the number one pick in the 2004 NHL Draft who has spent his entire career with the Capitals.

So, with Ovechkin surpassing a record deemed by some to be unreachable, are there other established marks across professional sports that will forever stand alone at the top?

According to fansided.com, they list 30 such records, but admit that a few could be in jeopardy under perfect circumstances.

Their writers are fairly certain that the top 10 records will stand the test of time.

The longest professional boxing match in history was recorded in 1893 when a crowd of roughly 8,500 folks gathered in New Orleans to see Andy Bowen battle Jack Burke in the ring. Seven hours and 110 rounds later, the match ended without a winner.

“In Round 108, referee John Duffy declared that the fighters had two more rounds to come up with a winner or this would be a “no contest.” Both fighters would not relent through Round 110, and the referee was forced to call the match with no winner,” according to fansided.com.

They rank Cy Young’s 511 career wins as a Major League Baseball pitcher as unreachable. It’s no wonder that the annual award given today to the top pitcher in both leagues is named for Young.

By comparison, one of today’s best pitchers in the majors is Justin Verlander. He’s won three Cy Young awards in a career that has seen the superstar win 257 games. He’ll be 41 this year.

I disagree with number three on their list of unbreakable records. Yes, Usain Bolt’s world record of 9.58 seconds in the 100-meter dash is, in two words, lightning fast. But I think the record is reachable. Tyson Gay came close in 2009 (the same year Bolt established the record) with a time of 9.69 seconds.

At number four on the list is Barry Bonds of Major League Baseball whose 688 career intentional walks still stands and I doubt will never come close to being equaled, much less broken. Prior to Bonds entering MLB, no player ever had more than 50 intentional walks in a season.

Another record that may be unbeatable is the 23 gold medals that USA swimmer Michael Phelps captured over his illustrious Olympics career. Think of the record this way, Phelps has more gold medals to himself than the United States has all time in tennis, weightlifting, archery, or beach volleyball. Even the great track and field star Carl Lewis won just nine Gold Medals during his Olympic career.

At number six on the list is indeed a record that will never be broken due to the simple reason that professional tennis changed the rules on tiebreakers. At Wimbledon in 2010, American John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut out of France in a match that took 11 hours and five minutes (stretched out over parts of three days) to complete.

Isner trailed two sets to one after dropping the third set that took 16 tiebreaker points to settle. He won the fourth set to even the match at two sets each.

In the deciding fifth set, the two men battled to a 6-6 stalemate. Neither man would fold in the tiebreaker, which reached 59-to-59 before it became too dark to play. They came back the next day and slugged it out for 20 more tiebreaker points before Isner finally prevailed in the longest match in professional tennis history.

Even with the likes of LaBron James and Steph Curry enjoying high scoring careers in the National Basketball Association, no one is expected to match Wilt Chamberlain’s 50.4 points per game scoring average he established during the 1961-62 season.

Neither will anyone match Cal Ripken’s 2,632 consecutive Major League Baseball games played.

And while Ovechkin is now the king of NHL goal scorers, Gretzky still ranks number one in career points scored (2,857….894 goals plus 1,963 assists) and he will forever remain in that spot. That’s a safe bet because the next seven players on that list are all retired (Jaromir Jagr, Mark Messier, Gordie Howe, Ron Francis, Marcel Dionne, Steve Yzerman, and Mario Lemieux). Ovechkin ranks #11 on the list with 1,619 career points.

And rounding out the top 10 of unbreakable records is another that will forever stand. During the 2007 NFL season while playing for the San Diego Chargers, Antonio Cromartie fielded a missed field goal one inch from the backline of the endzone and set sail on a 109.9 yard touchdown run, the longest scoring play in league history.

I could keep writing, but I do not want to set a record for the longest column in News-Herald history.

Cal Bryant is the Editor of Roanoke-Chowan Publications. Contact him at cal.bryant@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7207.